Prior to the widespread introduction of computers, document collaboration was typically accomplished by distributing a paper copy of a document sequentially, or by distributing multiple copies simultaneously, to a number of reviewers for comment.
In sequential review, as shown in FIG. 1, a document owner 10 designates a number of reviewers 20 to review a document. Each reviewer 20 makes comments, often in the form of notes written by hand, directly on a single paper copy of the document, passing the document along to the next reviewer when finished. The result is a single document indicating all of the proposed changes. The most obvious drawback of this editing method is that it is inherently time-consuming, especially when the number of reviewers is large. Furthermore, although it may be desirable to ascertain the author of a particular comment, the fact that all the comments are contained on the same document complicates such identification. Finally, it may not be desirable to permit later reviewers to read comments made by those who came earlier.
Simultaneous review, as shown in FIG. 2, by its nature is less time-consuming than sequential review, and results in a plurality of edited copies of a document, each prepared by a particular reviewer 20. However, the collaborative process is not complete until a central reviewer aggregates the comments of each individual reviewer into a complete document. Often, the owner 10 performs this function. Thus, the owner 10 must resolve conflicts among the comments of the several reviewers which might not have occurred had some of the reviewers been able to read the comments of others.
Connecting personal computers to communication networks has eliminated the need for distribution of paper copies, and for the notation of comments on documents by hand. Unfortunately, however, the collaborative process generally continues to be patterned after the work flow models described above. For example, Microsoft Word®, by Microsoft Corporation, of Redmond, Wash. provides revision tracking tools such as “redlining” which enable a reviewer to insert revisions as comments within a document in much the same way as comments are indicated on a manually marked-up paper copy of a document.
Although Microsoft Word® and other word processing software allows the author of a document to send a copy to many reviewers via e-mail or over the web or intranets, and each reviewer can make and track changes, the redlined document may only represent the changes suggested by one or more of several reviewers. When a large number of reviewers are involved in the collaboration, it becomes difficult to combine each reviewer's comments into a finished document. Extensive merging and/or cutting and pasting is necessary before the author even has a single document containing all the comments suggested by the reviewers.
There are some products, such as Workshare Synergy® by Workshare Technology of London, England that add collaboration features to Microsoft Word by changing the view and the process of compiling and integrating proposed changes from multiple individuals into a single document. However, Synergy is an applet, or software that is dependent entirely upon an application such as Microsoft Word® for its functionality. Furthermore, in Workshare Synergy®, the comments are sorted by reviewer with separate tabs denoting each reviewer's comments. This is problematic for multi-user collaborations because the most common workflow for authors is to review all the comments on a section-by-section or paragraph-by-paragraph basis. Still further, the document and the reviewers' comments cannot be reviewed side-by-side.
An additional drawback of current collaboration products will be noted by the author who, having received the comments of the reviewers, wishes to accept one or more of the suggested changes. In order to do so, the author must “scroll through” every comment made by every reviewer and elect to accept or reject the suggestions one by one. Thus, an author wishing to accept even one of 100 changes suggested must reject the remaining 99.
Thus, current computer-based collaboration products closely follow the paper-based collaboration methods upon which they are based, directly incorporating features of paper-based collaboration that are not necessary to or appropriate for the electronic transfer of documents. Particularly, the current collaboration products emulate the practice of directly “marking up” a paper copy of the document by its reviewers. Although this has proven to be the most efficient way to conduct manual document collaboration, it does not translate well into a method for electronic document collaboration.
Therefore, a need exists for a computer-based document collaboration system in the form of stand-alone software that will allow a plurality of reviewers to simultaneously review a single document on a plurality of computers and submit comments on the document wherein the comments of each reviewer are stored and indexed separately from the document and from those of other reviewers and forwarded to an editor or author without modifying the underlying document.
A further need exists for a computer-based document collaboration system that displays the comments of the plurality of reviewers in a first window on a single screen at the same time as it displays the document in a second window, allowing the editor or author to scroll through portions of the document and view the identity of the reviewer and the comments suggested on that portion of the document. It is desirable for such a system to enable the author or editor to selectively incorporate the comments of each reviewer into the document. It is further desirable, but not essential to provide a “thin client” in the form of software that can be sent with or separately from the document to an author, editor or reviewer to enable the display of the document and comments, and to allow the selective incorporation of comments by an author or editor independent of other word-processing software.
A still further need exists for a computer-based document collaboration system having a hierarchical structure wherein an author or editor may, for example, submit a document to a plurality of first-level reviewers hierarchically subordinate to the author or editor. Each first-level reviewer may in turn submit the document to a line of hierarchically subordinate second-level reviewers. It is desirable for an unlimited number of lines of reviewers of a document to be accommodated within unlimited hierarchical levels. A set of rules associated with the hierarchy defines which hierarchical rank and line may review comments generated by those in other ranks within the same line.